Shakespeare's influence in the novel Hag-Seed and Nutshell.

Hag-Seed is a 2016 novel by the prolific novelist Margaret Atwood and is the seventh book in Hogarth's "Hogarth Shakespeare" series. Like the other novels of the series, it is a standalone retelling of one of Shakespeare's classics.

In Hag-Seed, Atwood views Shakespeare's The Tempest through a modern lens, telling a story of revenge and hatred cloaked in a shroud of fantasy. Atwood tells the story by following the life of Felix, an artistic director who seeks revenge when his production of The Tempest is canceled by the company he worked for; in doing so, she masterfully parallels the story of Felix with the original story of The Tempest.

The novel engages with the timelessness of Shakespeare is through its own allegorical style. That is, the novel serves as a re-telling of The Tempest at the same time that its plot involves a revamped version of the play. By drawing clear parallels between Felix and Prospero, among other pairs of characters, the novel itself helps catapult Shakespearean themes (of revenge, grief, memory, etc.) into the twenty-first century. Readers are able to experience the "classic" literature of the Renaissance through a lens that engages with similar plots and lessons in a contemporary setting. Thus, the novel itself represents a celebration of Shakespeare's work as that which can transcend its own particular historical period.